On Thursday, European equities suffered their biggest daily fall since March 2009, as data across the euro zone indicated that recent gloominess in the region will continue.

There was talk of a Black Friday in Germany, the euro zone's biggest economy, after the Dax was Thursday's biggest faller in Europe.

Analysts at prominent banks slashed their forecasts for global and US growth as fears of a second recession within three years grew.

Politicians in the euro zone and the US were criticized for their monetary policies.

Morgan Stanley cut its global growth forecast for 2011 and 2012 Thursday and warned the U.S. and the euro zone were "dangerously close to a recession."

Citi slashed its forecast for US growth and issued a gloomy prognosis over the economy's "inability to mount a full recovery."

Equities Bear Market Will Continue: Gartman

"This is a true, unmitigated bear market in equities, this a true unmitigated diminution of assets almost everywhere, this is a winding down of all balance sheets," Dennis Gartman, founder of The Gartman Letter told CNBC Friday, adding the sell-off in equities is likely to continue for some time.

As central banks around the world cut interest rates and pumped money into their economies during the last recession, there are concerns that the options for monetary policy will be more limited this time around if the euro zone or the US slips into recession again.

TheSwiss National Bank announced a 2 billion Swiss franc ($2.5 billion) package to try and combat the strengthening of the currency this week.

"We have done everything to monetary policy that we could do and this slowdown is going to be uncontrollable," Roger Nightingale, RDN Associates, told CNBC.